Play a DVD in a scene

[furnmkr]

I am very new to OBS and I would like to use OBS to switch between various cameras and media types at presentations for my woodworking club. I would like to use OBS in virtual camera mode and create a scene that can be linked to an external DVD player and display a DVD video. I've searched the forums but don't see this addressed. I've tried using VLC to link to the player but that has not worked for me. Can someone provide some guidance on how to do this? I'd rather not rip a DVD to the computer but would just like to play the dvd from the external player. Is this possible?
Thanks

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

I'm suspecting the lack of response is due to folks like myself being unclear on what you are trying to accomplish

I am very new to OBS and I would like to use OBS to switch between various cameras and media types at presentations for my woodworking club.

this is exactly what OBS is good for, so you appear on the right track

I would like to use OBS in virtual camera mode and create a scene that can be linked to an external DVD player and display a DVD video.

This makes no sense to me.
Be careful as I and others don't know when your statement is intentional, or when you use terms casually and don't mean what you typed.

You mention VLC, which is one option to play media

I'd rather not rip a DVD to the computer but would just like to play the dvd from the external player. Is this possible?

Yes, but probably not in the way you want to.

TO play a DVD on an External, stand-alone DVD player, means
- capturing the video output from the DVD player, in a way that doesn't trigger DRM and have the image blocked. And your setup is exactly what typical commercial DVDs DRM is designed to prevent. [regardless of your intent, this setup enables bootleg copying of a DVD, so something to be aware of]. Are there ways (some of which would be at lower resolution depending on player) to capture such video? Yes. but video capture is NOT something a computer is capable of doing natively. You can NOT take an HDMI out from DVD player and plug into HDMI out of a PC/graphics card, and capture the signal as an input. You would need a capture device, and then a PC powerful to re-encode in real-time that video input, plus the video output you are creating

So lots of effort, and depending on # of DVDs involved, converting to video file on PC first, would be much easier to then accomplish the video compositing you are talking about using OBS

 

[furnmkr]

Thank you for your comments. I will rephrase my question so that you can get a better understanding of what I would like to to. I currently use vMix during my woodworking club meetings to switch between multiple cameras, powerpoint presentations, DVD disks, etc. Due to cost, I am limited to four (4) inputs so switching to an application like OBS Studio is very attractive. The outputs from vMix go to TV monitors via hdmi and to applications like Zoom. So, the Virtual Camera mode in OBS will allow me to be an input into Zoom as I do now with vMix.

With vMix, I can designate a DVD external drive as an input and put in a disk and play it and have both video and audio. I do not need to rip the video to the computer....just insert the disk, designate it as an input (a source in OBS terminology) and hit play. I need to work this way because our speakers may bring a disk with them to use as part of a presentation and I do not have the time to rip their video to disk and they may only want to show a very small part of the disk.

So, all of this works in OBS except for the audio. I can create a scene, designate a DVD as the Source and play the disk. I get video and I can see the DVD audio moving in the Audio Mixer but I do not hear anything. I've read a little bit about virtual audio cables...do I need to do something with installing them? If so, some guidance would be appreciated.

I hope this clarifies what I am trying to do and where I need some help.
Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

One more thing to clarify - is this a PC external DVD drive? or a DVD player meant for connecting to a TV ?
I'm guessing you are talking about a USB connected PC DVD drive? ie if you had a tower PC, it could be an internal (to PC) DVD drive?
In that case, the DVD is playing on the PC, and the DVD Drive in this case is just a media reader, not an actual player. And you are using PC Software to play the DVD
If that is your setup, yes absolutely OBS can do that. Though, again, beware which software is being used to play the DVD due to DRM potential considerations.
So, can you 'play' the DVD on the PC outside of OBS (using Media Player, VLC, or other s/w) and hear and see the content? if yes, then you should be able to use that in OBS

Separately, beware of USB Root Hub bandwidth limitations if you try to add to many USB video sources (in this case a USB DVD drive and the cameras using a similar amount of bandwidth). There are numerous discussions in this forum on how to address such an issue

 

[furnmkr]

yes, it is an external usb DVD drive.

I finally got both video and audio working on my desktop computer so I loaded both OSB and VLC onto my MSI laptop and it doesn't work. arggghhh!! I'm getting the same issue I had initially where I see the DVD menu screen in my Scene window but it is not active. I cannot click on it and select a chapter within the DVD to play. I've verified that both OBS and VLC are the 16 bit versions and I see VLC listed in the sources dropdown menu.

Very frustrating since it works on my Dell desktop but not now on my laptop.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

Most likely this has nothing to do with OBS
Ther are native codecs, and there are add-ons. I suspect you (somehow) added a codec to desktop that isn't on laptop

And I assume you mean 64-bit versions, not 16
AS a start, go through Windows Program list (in Control Panel/Settings) and look for any Codec add-ons. Or maybe the Dell came with something like Roxio Creator (which would add the codecs)